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Scotsman
30-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Kate Copstick: "The church of the clown has never been broader."
Cabbage the Clown: Cinemadrome | Lina Sakoviča Our comedy critic Kate Copstick meets a wide-ranging cavalcade of clowns performing at the Fringe this year. Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... From court jesters and village mummers, via Pierrot and Pagliacci , through Grimaldi's circus rings strewn with the doors of exploded cars, it seems the clown in all its complexities has always, somewhere, been with us. Now though, the church of the clown has never been broader, and Edinburgh is offering communion with them all this year. Dan Lees created both the Malcolm Hardee Award winners The Establishment and The Flop and if modern clowning has a Grand Master, he would be it. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'I think clowning, maybe in its purest form, is an ability to take the simplest idea and make an audience laugh," he says. "Basically this is because we are not laughing at the idea but at the idiot who thinks it is genius. Someone clever said, 'a comedian tells a joke, a clown is the joke'. We laugh at the clown, and they are happy to be laughed at.' There is, nowadays, so much 'me' in 'comedy' that there is less room for those laughs. Look at the comedy programme and so many shows are about me and my diagnosis of something or other, me and my issues, me and my problems. For clowns, the audience is the thing, the laughter is the thing. Having spent some comedy time doing spots at The Stand, Mr Twonkey was persuaded, 'as an experiment', to do the 2009 Fringe. His venue thought he was a children's show and put him on at noon, with his underwater circus and 'far too many props'. It did resemble 'a children's show gone horribly wrong', says the man himself. Twonkey never saw himself as a clown like 'all the ones who have been to the clown schools and have all the formats and techniques.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Dan Lees doesn't see that as necessary, but most definitely useful. 'I think the baseline is the likability of the performer.' he says. 'Do we like them? Then the next step is to create a world they can play in. But ultimately charm is the baseline.' Twonkey has charm in ladlefuls and plays in marvellous self-made multiverses that are not always appreciated by everyone. He was banned by The Stand in 2009 for covering the entire stage in treacle in a puppet related comic debacle. He also created the legendary single official performance of Twonkey's Custard Club which submerged the performance space, audience and performer in shaving foam, and destroyed his laptop. 'I hadn't thought it through,' he says. 'If people start enjoying it and laughing I have a tendancy to keep going until it all ends in tragedy." And that is my kind of clown. Elf Lyons: The Bird Trilogy | Elf Lyons Lady clowns are rarer. Or perhaps they just come in different forms. Elf Lyons cites Marilyn Monroe as having 'phenomenal' clown comic timing in many of her early roles, 'She used physical comedy because she wasn't given as many lines as her male co-stars,' says Lyons. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The Fringe is showcasing increasing numbers of female funnies. Could the award-winningly hilarious 'Legs' of the Duncan Brothers have stood astride the Fringe in 2019 without the trophy-laden comedy talents of Julia Masli ? I suspect not. Julia is, of course, back in Edinburgh this year with Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha. As the title subtly indicates, it is very funny. Elf herself has been entrancing Fringe-goers since Swan in 2017, but it was not an easy debut. 'The constant critique from - often male - reviewers was that it was 'silliness for silliness' sake'. Now, in 2025, those same comments are directed at male clowns by the same publications but as praise, not criticism. Because for men, that kind of performance is allowed and we are so much more used to men being silly.' She is Gaulier trained, although, incredibly, not in clowning, and 'I would never say 'I am a clown' because I wouldn't have the audacity to, but I do say I use clowning. If someone says they're a clown, they should be able to make me laugh immediately just from being.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad This is a high bar to set. 'I still think it's political for women to be silly," says Lyons. "It's still subversive when we do it, and that pressure can push us to have to reveal trauma or tragedy at the cliched 40 minute mark in order to show we have earned the right to be there. Which is ludicrous. If I want to be an octopus, let me be an octopus, I shouldn't have to have some tragic subtext to get there.' This is, she says, why women make stronger bouffons (dark clowns). 'They have more anger and more to say and more things to blaspheme against." Talking of which, Narin Oz – well known part-clown part-bouffon, who describes herself as 'an overexcited clueless child alien trapped in a sexy Turkish Cypriot adult body' is back in Edinburgh trying to reconcile her inner and outer selves in Inner Child(ish). And, in the tradition of suffering for one's art, in these days of rocketing accommodation costs, is planning to camp for the month. As is Fulbright scholar and queer clown Edu Diaz. Although not in a 'freezing in a tent' sort of way. Clowning and magical realism are his things and A Drag Is Born is his show. The story of a man of advanced age, abundant body hair, and limited talents, who becomes Carnival Queen. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Typically, we wait ages for one truly queer clown show and then two come along. Self proclaimed 'tragic fool' Cabbage the Clown's drag-clown debut hour, Cinemadrome, comes on digital wings of eight million adoring online fans. 'A buffet of genres,' apparently. Look out for the popcorn. Dan Lees: The Vinyl Countdown, Greatest Bits!, PBH's Free Fringe @ Banshee Labyrinth, 10.10pm, until 24 August Twonkey's Zip Wire to Zanzibar, Laughing Horse @ Dragonfly, 8.15pm, until 24 August Elf Lyons: The Bird Trilogy, Pleasance Dome, 8pm, 12-25 August, Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Julia Masli: ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, Pleasance Dome, 11.15pm, 11-24 August, Narin Oz: Inner Child(ish), Just the Tonic at the Mash House, 4pm, until 24 August A Drag is Born, Zoo Playground, 6.05pm, until 24 August
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
11th annual Pete Goede ALS Benefit Concert
SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU) – Many Siouxlanders gathered at the hard rock hotel and casino today to rock out to some music and support those with ALS. The 11th annual Pete Goede Als Benefit Concert kicked off earlier this afternoon with four bands playing throughout the day alongside a silent auction with all sorts of prizes later in the evening. The event was started after Sioux City musician Pete Goede of the band 'The Establishment' passed away in 2015 from ALS, the concert raises funds for folks battling the same disease 'Places like 'ALS in the Heartland' are able to provide people with services at no cost to get a caregiver in the home, or to help their children with driver's ed because they can't afford it or to get equipment that costs thousands and thousands of dollars. So raising that money helps us do those services for free,' said Tammy Stalzer, the executive director with ALS in the Heartland. Officials hope to raise $40,000 to $50,000 this year. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
11th annual Pete Goede ALS Benefit Concert this weekend
SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU) — The 11th annual Pete Goede ALS Benefit Concert is this weekend! The annual concert will be taking place at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Sioux City inside of the Anthem. The Pete Goede ALS Benefit Concert takes place on Sunday from 1 p.m. until 8 p.m. and will feature a variety of bands. This year's lineup includes Steven Bankey and the Flatland Band, Missouri Blend, Rock Bottlem, and The Establishment. There will also be a live auction. Spencer no-kill animal shelter raising money for renovations The event is held in memory of Pete Goede, who was the lead singer of 'The Establishment.' The band was inducted into the Iowa Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in 2008. They performed at the then-named 'Rockin' For ALS Benefit Concert' in 2015. The name was changed after Goede passed away just a couple months later. ALS is a 'progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord,' according to the ALS Association. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's Disease, causes neurons that control muscles to degenerate until they eventually die, meaning those with the disease will lose voluntary muscle action. There is currently no cure for the disease. When Pete Goede was diagnosed, he wanted to help others in the same situation. 'This was his idea to do a concert in Sioux City for ALS. It was Pete's last concert…he passed that April,' said Eric Boetger, one of the organizers of the event and Goede's bandmate. The event is free to attend, though you must be 21 years of age or older to enter the Anthem. All proceeds from the concert go to families who are affected by ALS. KCAU 9 News is a proud sponsor of the Rockin' For A Cure: Pete GOede ALS Benefit Concert. This year, KCAU 9 donated $5,000 to the cause. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
When did the media go wrong? A new book blames Robert Caro.
Every election prompts months of media handwringing — which tweet, which interview, which embarrassing question really made them hate us this time? In a new book,, the author Marc Dunkelman goes a bit further into history to pinpoint where American media lost its way — and lands on the glorious summer of 1974, when the Washington Post took down Richard Nixon and the New Yorker published four parts of a monumental biography of New York's great builder, Robert Moses. And his media villain is a man Dunkelman described to me as 'Abbie Hoffman in a tweed suit': Robert Caro, the revered, now 89-year old author of The Power Broker who is now working on the fifth volume of his biography of President Lyndon Johnson. The 1,246-page is a legend of American biography, and sits on the shelves of most journalists. (Mine, I noticed this week, was leaning dangerously toward the sofa, and so I moved it and weighed it — 3 pounds, 3 ounces by my kitchen scale.) By the time I read it in the late 1990s, it was received wisdom — detached from any time and place, and from any sense that it advanced a political agenda. It was both a brilliant exploration of the inner workings of mid-20th century government power and a cautionary tale of how The Establishment used that power to drive highways through neighborhoods, replace 'slums' with apartment buildings, and, well, build a lot of very nice parks. Dunkelman puts the book back into context: 'When, during the Watergate summer of 1974, Robert Caro published his voluminous takedown of Robert Moses, the spellbinding narrative mirrored what was, nay then, an entirely familiar worldview. Moses had been a progressive … a man who believed unerringly in the wisdom of experts,' he writes. The exposé, 'released within weeks of Nixon's resignation, was yet more evidence of power gone awry.' Earlier journalists had 'made a practice of taking public officials at their word.' (Muckrakers, like the consequential Jack Anderson, who broke much of the Watergate story but has largely been erased from its high-minded history, were confined to the margins as problematic gossip-mongers.) But there had been a cultural change: 'Boomers entering the news business in the 1960s weren't inclined to accept government claims so uncritically, and for good reason.' Dunkelman argues that Watergate, and embodied a new sort of negative naivete: a reflexive skepticism of the use of power. The role of journalism became, as you'll often hear, to hold power to account — hardly to celebrate its successes, or even to recognize them. 'The individual has to yield in matters of this kind to the entire country, to the advantages and needs of the majority of the people,' Moses protested, after people stopped listening to him. 'If not, we wouldn't build anything!' Caro didn't respond to an email inquiry about Dunkelman's line on him, or the broader reconsideration of Moses. Dunkelman's book captures a rising tide in Democratic politics that sometimes goes under the 'YIMBY' ('yes in my backyard') heading. This pro-growth liberalism has been brewing for years. The blogger Matt Yglesias proposed in in 2020 that the United States dominate its global competitors by tripling its populationa premise that was (obviously) not immediately embraced by either political party. A wing of the Democratic Party, beginning in San Francisco, has made a crusade of killing restrictive zoning regulations, sometimes pushing conservatives skeptical of an influx of big buildings into opposing growth in favor of a regulatory state. The case has continued to develop, though, and its proponents are trying out a new label: the 'abundance agenda.' Ezra Klein's and Derek Thompson's much-anticipated new book Abundance is likely to focus the conversation around these arguments this spring. They make the case that a successful Democratic Party — and its cities — must rally around an idea of a future in which the price and quality of housing falls the way it has for consumer goods like flatscreen TVs. And they argue that Democrats' doctrinaire insistence on restraining the private sector in the first instance — through a blind embrace of regulations on business and technology — has cost them the ability to govern. Dunkelman came to this subject in a familiar way: reading as he took the train into New York City, and disembarked in Penn Station. 'I would close the book, gather my belongings, and climb up into the daylight through the dingy, fetid basement corridors that serve as the city's front door,' he recalls. My weekly trips to Washington take me through the gorgeous, airy Moynihan Train Hall, jammed to completion by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo. (The media coverage of its opening was mixed. Architecture critics called it 'glorious' and 'stunning.' 'Homeless feel unwelcome' without benches to sleep on, The City reported. The New York Post broke the news that the pressure of finishing the project had contributed to an executive's suicide.) New York's government is, again, at a low, and a mayor's race is underway. Cuomo is likely to run, and he's long expressed a theory of government that harkens back to the progressive era: that in an age of public distrust, the best way to restore faith is to build and fix big, literal, public works — Moynihan, La Guardia Airport, the former Tappan Zee Bridge, now named after his father. I asked him last week about whether New York should reclaim the title of the biggest building in the world: 'Al Smith, [in the] midst of the Depression, [built] the Empire State building in one year. Yes, we can.' A Brooklyn state senator, Zellnor Myrie, is running as the YIMBY candidate, proposing that the city put 85,000 apartments in whole 'new neighborhoods,' part of a plan for a million new homes that could add millions in populationHe'd also like the height title back: 'We shouldn't be beat by Dubai,' he told the New York Editorial Board, of which I'm a member, Thursday. 'New Yorkers just like to be inspired.' Is it the job of the media to cheerlead such things, which bring — as Moses said — terrible tradeoffs? Generations of journalists would tell you: absolutely not. I suppose that's why the tallest building in the world is in Dubai, where they don't have these problems. Moses was the embodiment and the arm of The Establishment. We live at a moment when all politics is populism and the public consensus is to tear down the elites, the Niskanen Center's Soren Dayton notes, while the original progressives were focused on crushing urban machines and putting power in the hands of wiser leaders. 'In a re-celebration of Robert Moses and the [Tennessee Valley Authority], you blow past public participation and celebrate a technocratic depoliticization. And, again, these same people explicitly tried to drive down public participation,' he wrote on X. 'Does that sound like a match for today?' to can be read online, with this epigraph from Sophocles: 'One must wait until the evening to see how splendid the day has been.' 'The author and publisher do not comprehend the obligations of leadership,' Caro wrote in his typewritten 23-page response to the book's four-part New Yorker excerpts. Moses's legacy for City Journal, and found him a less sinister — and monumental — figure: 'Moses survived not through Machiavellian machinations to subvert political will but by smoothly delivering what the state and city's governing class, business leaders, and editorial boards wanted him to accomplish.' What is American journalism if it isn't focused on holding power to account, our profession's loose and perhaps self-important mission in recent decades? President Theodore Roosevelt raised that question back in 1906. 'The men with the muck-rakes are often indispensable to the well-being of society; but only if they know when to stop raking the muck, and to look upward to the celestial crown above them, to the crown of worthy endeavor,' he said.
